For a Red Robin gift card, click here!
The Good: Good food, Good atmosphere, Great service
The Bad: A little pricy
The Basics: Red Robin provides real gourmet burgers at a price that makes it clear they are offering a premium product and they mostly live up to expectations.
My first two experiences with Red Robin restaurants were good, but very rushed. My wife found coupons online that allowed us to get a free burger for me on my birthday. Feeling shy, she refused to come in with me, so I talked it over with the restaurant and they graciously allowed me to do take-out, despite what the coupon dictated (very cool!). So, I ate my first Red Robin burger in the car with my wife and our Siberian Husky eagerly looking over our shoulders. The second time I went was for my wife’s birthday because I figured one good turn deserved another! She had us go in and the restaurant kindly split the free burger between us, which was super cool of both my wife and the restaurant. Eager to be able to review a place that seemed so genuinely cool, on my one Myah-free day this summer, I decided to treat myself to a Red Robin dinner!
Red Robin is a chain restaurant that trades on being a gourmet burger restaurant and it has a sportsbar feel to it, save that the walls are adorned with movie memorabilia instead of sports-related objects. Red Robin actually strikes me as an adult-themed (the prominence of the bar and the fact that I’ve never seen children at the local Red Robin leads me to this) version of the family burger join Zebb’s. And there are plenty of days when I would pay the extra cost for the food at Red Robin as opposed to have to see and hear children at the restaurant!
Location
Red Robin restaurants are located throughout the United States and I have only found them in New York state as standalone restaurants, though they are frequently situated near malls or strip malls. While they have a kids menu, I have lucked out and never once run into a child at the Red Robins I have frequented. That immediately makes me like the chain more; I’m a big advocate for having places where it’s nice to go where there are no children.
Red Robin tends to be decorated like a diner or sportsbar. They usually have tables and booths and there is seating at the bar at my local Red Robin. The walls tend to be decorated with nostalgia-themed artwork, mostly black-and-white photographs from the movies. The dominant color scheme is red at the local Red Robin and while the walls might seem cluttered, it has a pretty fun atmosphere. There are two televisions, always on, at my local Red Robin’s bar. I was, upon request, seated away from the televisions, though I could still see the movement from the t.v. in the mirror on the wall near my table. That was mildly annoying.
Waitstaff
Red Robin uses traditional waiters or waitresses. Each time I have gone – alone or with my wife – we have been waited on by a young woman. Come to think of it, the only men I have seen working at my local Red Robin have been the cooks working in the back. The waitresses have each been clean and knowledgeable about the products being served and we were given plenty of time to order.
Red Robin may have slightly higher prices, but the staff is one of the most friendly that I have ever encountered, especially at a chain restaurant. The waitresses were articulate, gave good banter, left my wife and I alone on her birthday when it was clear we were trying to share a moment, and have been attentive to drinks each and every time I’ve gone. Even when I’ve just grabbed take-out, the staff has been friendly (which is uncommon because usually take-out means the waitress isn’t getting tipped). At my local Red Robin, the staff has always been friendly and efficient and eager to please.
Food
Despite the price, I was very impressed by the food at Red Robin. They trade on providing gourmet burgers and they succeed! The fries that Red Robin burgers come with have always been served hot and fresh to me and I actually like how they arrive undersalted so I can taste the potato in them!
The last time I went to Red Robin, I treated myself to a Mint Brownie Shake to drink. The ice cream in the beverage was whipped smooth and the mint flavor was strong enough to satisfy me (which is saying something because I am a huge fan of mint!). What set it apart from many other milk shakes I have tried is that the brownie chunks that were in the shake did not all settle to the bottom, nor did they simply get soggy, break up and dissipate through the glass.
I also went with an appetizer, in this case the Towering Onion Rings. Onion rings are hit or miss for me because I’m not a huge fan of onions and I actually like cheap, crappy, processed onion rings (you know, the type that use onion powder instead of actual onions). Red Robin’s Towering Onion Rings are turning me around on fresh onion rings! The big onion rings use yellow onions and what sold me on them was the quality of the batter and the fact that they were cooked all the way through. The batter is spicy and the combination of salty, bready and just enough pepper to add some zest made these a delight on the tongue! The onions beneath were fully cooked, not cold and crunchy. They easily gave way under my teeth and they enhanced the flavor of the batter in a way that made them quite delightful. In fact, one almost does not need the sauces that the Towering Onion Rings comes with, they are so good. Even so, the sauces complimented the flavors quite nicely, though the Campfire Sauce threatened to overwhelm the taste buds.
Then there are the burgers. Before my last trip, I was very much a creature of habit. I went with the Bleu Ribbon Burger. The Bleu Ribbon Burger is not just a bleu cheese burger. Red Robin bastes the ground beef with steak sauce that can be easily tasted when the burger is cooked, sets the burger on a bed of onion straws (on the lower bun) and then tops the burger with crumbled bleu cheese. Because the burger is served straight off the grill, I tend to have mine without vegetables and by the time it hits the table, the bleu cheese crumbles are already melting! This burger is a wonderfully rich burger that combines fresh juicy beef with the sour tang of bleu cheese and chipotle mayo. I’m not a fan of mayo, but on this burger, it helps make every bite different. Some have more steak sauce that sweetens it, some have a little more pepper in the mayo to give the bite a kick and others let the cheese season the meat in a way that makes one think the cow was stuffed with fine cheese before it willingly hopped onto the grill! This is a delicious burger!
For my last trip, I figured I should expand my options and I went with the standard Red Robin Gourmet Cheeseburger. I decided to get the burger the way the restaurant advertises it, so it was a pretty standard Original hamburger served on an onion roll with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onions, mayo and Red Robin’s relish. Mine had nice, thick slices of cheddar cheese on it. To be fair, the cheese melted beautifully to the meat. I found, however, that all of the additives completely drown out the flavor of the meat. It was only after I scraped everything off but the meat and cheese that I found myself once again delighted by the burger. It’s not that the Red Robin Gourmet Cheeseburger was bad, it was more like a salad on a bed of meat than an actually enjoyable burger. Without all of the extra garnish, the beef was flavorful and the cheese complemented that flavor delightfully. But for the price, I’d rather get a burger that had additives that justified that price and made me feel like I was getting something I couldn’t just as easily make at home.
Despite how good the desserts looked, I could not bring myself to order one. Even with scraping the garnishes off my burger, Red Robin makes a very filling burger!
Overall
Red Robin is tough to escape at under $20 for a single person, but for what one gets at that price, it is usually well worth the visit. The combination of quality food, very friendly staff and an atmosphere that is fun justifies the expense of the gourmet burger restaurant!
For other restaurants, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Moe's Southwestern Grill
Tim Hortons
America
7.5/10
For other restaurant or food reviews, please visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!
© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
|
For a Red Robin gift card, click here!
No comments:
Post a Comment